IMF Director Christine Lagarde expressed her public view that Greeks would have to pull off a ‘heroic feat’, if they were to sustain a 3.5% primary surplus till 2018. The Fund released a sustainability report on the Greek debt along the same lines, dampening a general sense of optimism regarding a deal on the Greek matter on the eve of Tuesday’s Eurogroup meeting.

‘No economy has managed to achieve something similar, so much more so the Greek economy given projections that the unemployment levels will remain in double digits for the following years’, explains the Fund.

The divergence of opinions on the Greek debt is one of the key matters of contention between the IMF and its European partners collaborating on the Greek program, as the Europeans, led by Germany, insist any debt relief is out of the question, while the IMF has made it clear it bail from the program if it considered the Greek debt unsustainable. The IMF estimates a 1.5% surplus would be a more realistic goal in the long term.